15 October 2012
I must confess to now having a grudging respect for John Key. He knew how to manipulate people to get results, which was evident from how he made his money, but he's moved his talent effortlessly from the corporate world to politics.
Latest opinion polls show him with a still-massive lead, which he attributes to National's focusing on "the big issues".
Any politician making that comment in view of National's recent history should be laughed off the microphone, but Key manages to slide it through with barely a murmur.
Key has managed to convince the voters that the big issues are Maori water claims and cutting off dope-smokers' benefits.
Bullshit!
The Maori issue in particular is no more than a giant side-show. Key gets to strut his [rightly] populist policies on that subject while factories lie idle and the quiet toll of companies shedding a couple of guys here and a few there mount up. Plus the fact that the unemployment rate in NZ is being held artificially low by the thousands migrating to Australia.
In the meantime, our dollar is screamingly high, investment in Auckland is at a standstill, and rents are far outstripping inflation. Update: in fact, if rental increases weren't counted in the current year to September figures released today, the CPI increase rate would already be at zero, well outside the RBNZ target range.
Those are the major problems, and Key has predictably provided no leadership at all.
Given his popularity, now would be the ideal time to implement realistic policies to give the country the impetus it needs to survive.
Instead in typical National culture, mirroring droit de seigneur, Key decides to rule merely for the enjoyment of ruling.
His timing in being in power at a time of opposition and Opposition vacuum, is impeccable.
Copyright © Alan Charman